Homebrewing

COMSTOCK, Mich. – Winners of the 6th Annual Bell’s Homebrew Competition were announced Nov. 1st during the 7th Annual All Stouts Day at Bell’s Eccentric Café. Eleven homebrewers placed out of the 132 entries that were submitted. This year’s winners list also features some familiar names from past competitions. First place went to David Hellen for his Farmhouse Ale brewed with HBC 438 and Mosaic hops. HBC 438 is an experimental hop, available exclusively to homebrewers. All proceeds from the sale of this variety go toward finding a cure for ALS via the Ales for ALS program that Bell’s has been a part of since it started in 2013. Hellen will get to brew his recipe at Bell’s original brewery to then go on tap at the adjacent Café. He will also head to the 2016 Great American Beer Festival in Denver as a guest of Bell’s and compete alongside a Bell’s brewer in the Pro-Am Competition. “We had a good mix of experimental and classically defined beers ­- a lot of variety this year. IPAs usually dominate the final round of judging, but this year that was not the case,” David Curtis, Bell’s General Store Manager and competition organizer, said. Second place went to Nick Rodammer for his Gose inspired, dry hopped sour ale. Rodammer took first place in the 2012 Bell’s Homebrew Competition with the recipe for Manden Med Leen, a Black IPA brewed with Belgian yeast. Third place went to Jennifer Bilyk for her salted caramel Stout. This year’s runners up are (in no particular order): Larry Yuhas – Coconut Vanilla Porter Diane Spencer – Imperial Nut Brown Ale Gregg Updike – Imperial Stout Scott Feldpausch – Coconut Porter Brian McHugh / Gary Howard – Light IPA with Blackberries Joe Nielsen – Coffee infused American Stout Gary Strappazon – IPA with Mosaic and Centennial hops David Lyman (2013 winner) – Session IPA with Mosaic and Citra hops “Homebrewing is where it all started for us. To be able to provide this opportunity on this scale and to see that familiar passion and drive, especially as we look back over the last 30 years is very rewarding,” Laura Bell, Bell’s Vice President said. More information about when this year’s winning recipe will be tapped at the Café will be released as it becomes available. Judges' comments are available to be picked up at the Bell's General Store. 

Kalamazoo Public Library’s 2nd Annual Booktoberfest features three different sessions lead by two of our staff. John Mallett, Director of Operations here at Bell’s and author of “Malt: A Practical Guide From Field to Brewhouse,” along with David Curtis, Bell’s General Store Manager, will both lead homebrew related sessions. Mallett will speak on Sept. 29 about how to select the right ingredients while keeping both quality and cost in mind at the Oshtemo Branch Library. Curtis will lead two workshops in October at KPL’s Central Branch (downtown): Getting Started Homebrewing (equipment, the brewing process, plus tips and tricks to get started) - Thursday, Oct. 22, 6:30 p.m. Choosing Homebrewing Equipment (equipment choices and upgrades for any budget) - Thursday, Oct. 29, 6:30 p.m. Other programs include a session with Jeff and Bonnie Steinmann of Hop Head Farms (their hops are used in a few different Bell’s beers including our Christmas Ale) and another with Fred Bueltmann of New Holland Brewing Co. and author of Beervangelist’s Guide to the Galaxy. There are also special beers from Kalamazoo’s One Well Brewing and Tibbs Brewing. All programs will offer raffle prizes and giveaways. For more info, go here.

The tapping of the 2014 Homebrew Competition’s winning recipe kicked off with a ringing of the bell and a toast to winning homebrewer Matt VanNatter by Pub Brewing Manager Zeke Bogan. Matt recently had the opportunity to help brew his winning recipe at Bell’s original brewery in downtown Kalamazoo, which debuted at this year’s Great Taste of the Midwest in Madison, Wisconsin earlier this summer. A California Common style beer brewed with coffee, Coffee Mustache (6% ABV) is a deceptively pale beer with distinct roasty, nutty, coffee notes created by aging the beer on whole coffee beans from Kalamazoo Coffee Company. Matt will soon head to the 2015 Great American Beer Festival in Denver as a guest of Bell’s and compete alongside one of our brewers in the Pro-Am Competition. The 6th Annual Bell’s Homebrew Competition Kick-off and Expo will be held this year on Sept. 19 at Bell’s Eccentric Café in downtown Kalamazoo.

COMSTOCK, Mich. - The 6th Annual Bell’s Homebrew Competition Kick-off and Expo will be held this year on Sept. 19 at Bell’s Eccentric Café in downtown Kalamazoo. The homebrewer who takes first place will again get to brew their recipe at our original brewery to then go on tap at the Café. The first place winner will also attend the Great American Beer Festival in Denver, Colorado as a guest of Bell’s Brewery. That person will team up with Bell’s for the 2016 Pro-Am Competition and attend both the awards ceremony and member’s only session. Bell’s will cover the cost of airfare to Denver and back (must be within the continental U.S.) and provide lodging for two nights. “This competition is a great way to honor how we got our start and it is always exciting to see the level of creativity and skill from our homebrewing community,” said Laura Bell, Vice President of Bell’s Brewery, Inc. As in previous years, there is no cost to enter the competition and the only requirement is that you use Bell’s wort, which will be available for free at the kick-off, while supplies last. Previous winners are -  2010: Oscar’s Folly, a collaborative IPA from Jarrett Cupp, Bailey Cupp and Paul Gentz. 2011: A Bit of Heat from Geoff Groff, brewed with paradise seeds, rose hips and habaneros. 2012: Manden Med Leen, a black IPA brewed with Belgian yeast from Nick Rodammer. 2013: Proud Mitten, a dry hopped IPA/Pale Ale made with Centennial, Citra and Simcoe hops from David Lyman. 2014: Coffee Mustache, a California Common style beer brewed with coffee from Matt VanNatter. The winning recipe from 2014, Coffee Mustache, will be tapped at 2 p.m. on Aug. 30 at the Cafe. It recently debuted at this year’s Great Taste of the Midwest in Madison, Wisconsin. This year’s Expo will run from 11 a.m. until 2 p.m. and will feature Blichmann Engineering, White Labs, Briess Malt, Foxx Equipment, The American Homebrewer’s Association, Kalamazoo Libation Organization of Brewers (KLOB), Hophead Farms and others. Sign-up times for wort pickup will begin at 11 a.m. Wort will be distributed beginning around 1 p.m., first come, first served. In past years, more than 200 homebrewers have been able to receive wort. Competition entries (four 12 oz. bottles) are due to the Bell’s General Store by 7 p.m., Sunday, October 25. Things to keep in mind if you decide to enter Homebrewers should bring a sanitized vessel with them to transport their wort home. Buckets, carboys (please be extra careful handling glass carboys) and cornelius kegs are the most common vessels. You can leave them in your vehicle until it’s time to pick up your wort, but again, please sanitize your vessel prior to your pick-up time to help us make sure everyone gets their wort. Make sure to get there early, as supplies will be limited. Signing up early will help guarantee wort. You can send someone else to pick up your wort. We aren’t concerned with who takes it, just who turns in bottles to be judged in October. We do ask that you don’t bring friends or relatives who don’t brew, just so you can have an extra 5+ gallons of wort. We are relying on the goodwill of homebrewers to help each other out and share the wealth. Please help us make sure all who want to compete are able. You can add whatever you like to your recipe/submission. However, if your entry is chosen as the winner, we will have to be able to figure out a way to make your beer on a much larger scale. So please, take good, detailed notes of everything you do to the wort. We won’t know exactly how much we will end up with until the wort is made, but last year we were able to give 5 gallons of wort to more than 200 homebrewers. We hope to be in that ballpark again this year, but things happen during wort transfers that can affect that number. We recommend arriving early to sign up and make sure you get your wort.

The sun is out and spring is around the corner and to top it off, we are enjoying the winning beer from our first ever employee homebrew challenge, Thruway IPA. As a team building activity, over 50 employees entered the competition and were divided into 13 homebrew teams with the goal to develop the best beer to then be voted on by all Bell’s employees. Each team consisted of employees with homebrew experience ranging from little to none to our very own brewers. It included employees from almost every single department here at Bell’s. Our New York sales team, one of the more recent additions to the Bell’s Family, developed Thruway IPA in their home state and brought it back to Kalamazoo to be entered in our employee homebrew challenge. Thruway IPA ran away with the popular vote and was crowned the first ever Bell’s employee homebrew challenge winner! After winning the homebrew challenge, our New York sales team came back to Kalamazoo to brew their beer on our experimental 15 barrel system (our original brewery) located right next door to the Eccentric Café and is now on tap for anyone to enjoy. Thruway (7% ABV) presents with a very pungent, tropical hop aroma and finishes with a luscious malt backbone. In homage to Bell’s NY Sales Team, the name Thruway IPA comes from the New York Thruway, a toll road that starts in NYC and runs to the Pennsylvania state line, connecting major cities across New York state. Congratulations New York sales team!

To celebrate the release of “Malt: A Practical Guide from Field to Brewhouse,” we're hosting a book signing this Sunday, Dec. 21 at the Eccentric Café. It will be held in the Café’s Back Room from noon until 2 p.m. Books will be available to purchase both at the bar and at the Bell’s General Store right next to the Cafe. Written by John Mallett, Director of Production here at Bell’s, this book is the fourth entry in the Brewers Publications’ Brewing Elements series. Delving into the intricacies of this key ingredient, Malt provides a comprehensive overview with a primary focus on barley from the field through the malting process. Mallett offers readers primers on history, agricultural development and physiology of the barley kernel, leading readers through the enzymatic conversion that takes place during the malting process. A detailed discussion of enzymes, the Maillard reaction, and specialty malts follows. Quality and analysis, malt selection and storage and handling are also explained making this book a valuable resource for all brewers. Mallett has been with Bell’s Brewery since 2001. As Director of Operations he is responsible for logistics, brewing, packaging and brewery capital projects. John serves on many brewing Technical Committees and Boards including Master Brewers Association of the Americas, the Brewer’s Association, the American Malting Barley Association and the Hop Quality Group. He has lectured and written extensively and has been a member of the Extended Faculty of Siebel Institute of Technology since 1995. In 2002, he was the recipient of the Institute for Brewing Studies Russell Schehrer Award for brewing innovation. For more information about this book, please go here.

The winners of the 5th Annual Bell’s Homebrew Competition were announced yesterday during the 6th Annual All Stouts Day at the Eccentric Café. Twelve homebrewers placed out of the 162 entries that were submitted for this year’s competition. Matt VanNatter (photo, right) took first place with his California Common style beer brewed with coffee. He will get to brew his recipe at our original brewery to then go on tap at the adjacent Café. He will also head to the 2015 Great American Beer Festival in Denver as a guest of Bell’s and compete alongside one of our brewers in the Pro-Am Competition (both prizes are new this year).  Judges were again impressed with the quality of the beers this year, said David Curtis, Bell’s General Store Manager and competition organizer. “There was a lot of experimentation like in past years but overall, very solid beers,” he said. Second place went to Teri Grossman for her Pale Ale brewed with mango and habanero. Third place went to Laurie Newman for her Belgian Dubbel brewed with oranges. Also placing in the top six are (in order) Dawn Updike (hoppy Pale Ale), Lauren David (Cherry Beer) and Kevin Cole (Amber/Brown Ale). This year’s runners up are   Patrick Kean – IPA Tony Cafarelli – American Pale Ale Vaughn Vargo-Alevras – Berliner Weisse with Michigan Tart Cherries Mike McCoy – Brown Ale with Blueberries Dave Lyman – India Brown Ale Jay VanBuskirk – Double IPA More information about when VanNatter’s winning recipe will be tapped at the Café will be released as it becomes available. Judges' comments are available at the Bell's General Store. Cheers and congratulations to all!

205 homebrewers, their families and friends plus quite a few local companies joined us at this year's competition kick-off and expo. Entry bottles are due to the General Store by Oct. 25. Winners will be announced on All Stouts Day at the Eccentric Cafe on Nov. 2. Below is a time lapse of the actual wort giveaway. Thanks to everyone who joined. Looking forward to seeing (and tasting) the entries this year!  

Now in its fifth year, the Bell’s Homebrew Competition wort giveaway and Expo will be held on Sept. 13 at the Eccentric Café in downtown Kalamazoo. To celebrate how this annual competition has grown and as a nod to our homebrewing roots, we have added something new. While the homebrewer who takes first place will still get to brew their recipe at our original brewery to then go on tap at the Café, they will also team up with us for the 2015 Pro-Am Competition at the Great American Beer Festival in Denver, Colorado. The winner will attend the GABF, the awards ceremony and the members only session as our guest. Bell’s will cover the cost of airfare to Denver and back (must be within the continental U.S.) and provide lodging for two nights as well. As in previous years, there is no cost to enter the competition and the only requirement is that you use our wort, which we provide for free. Previous winners are: • Oscar’s Folly, a collaborative IPA from Jarrett Cupp, Bailey Cupp and Paul Gentz. • A Bit of Heat from Geoff Groff that was brewed with paradise seeds, rose hips and habaneros. • Manden Med Leen, a black IPA brewed with Belgian yeast, from Nick Rodammer. • And most recently, Proud Mitten, a dry hopped IPA/Pale Ale made with Centennial, Citra and Simcoe hops from David Lyman of Kalamazoo. Multiple homebrew vendors will be present at the Expo to talk about their companies and products as well. The Expo will start at 11 a.m. and admission is free. This event is part of Bell’s week-long 29th Anniversary Celebration which also includes our annual Hot Dog Eating Contest in addition to performances by Leftover Salmon, Cash’d Out (a Johnny Cash tribute band), Monophonics and more. Competition entries (4 bottles) are due to the Bell’s General Store by Saturday, October 25. Winners will be announced on All Stouts Day, Nov. 2, also at the Cafe. Want to enter? Here is what you need to know. Sign-up times for wort pickup will begin at 11 a.m. Wort will be distributed starting at 1 p.m. Homebrewers should bring a sanitized vessel with them to transport their wort home. Buckets, carboys (please be extra careful handling glass carboys) and cornelius kegs are the most common vessels. You can leave them in your vehicle until it’s time to pick up your wort, but again, please sanitize your vessel prior to your pick-up time to help us make sure everyone gets their wort. Make sure to get there early, as supplies will be limited. Signing up early will help guarantee wort. You can send someone else to pick up your wort. We aren’t concerned with who takes it, just who turns in bottles to be judged in October. We do ask that you don’t bring friends or relatives who don’t brew, just so you can have an extra 5+ gallons of wort. We are relying on the goodwill of homebrewers to help each other out and share the wealth. Please help us make sure all who want to compete are able. You can add whatever you like to your recipe/submission. However, if your entry is chosen as the winner, we will have to be able to figure out a way to make your beer on a much larger scale. So please, take good, detailed notes of everything you do to the wort. We won’t know exactly how much we will end up with until the wort is made, but last year we were able to give 5 gallons of wort to 202 homebrewers. We hope to be in that ballpark again this year, but things happen during wort transfers that can affect that number. We recommend arriving early to sign up and make sure you get your wort.  

Now in its fifth year, the Bell’s Homebrew Competition kick-off and Expo will take place on Sept. 13 at the Eccentric Café in downtown Kalamazoo. To celebrate how this annual competition has grown and as a nod to our homebrewing roots, we have added something new. While the homebrewer who takes first place will still get to brew their recipe at our original brewery to then go on tap at the Café, they will also team up with us for the 2015 Pro-Am Competition at the Great American Beer Festival in Denver, Colorado. The winner will attend the GABF, the awards ceremony and the members only session as our guest. We will cover the cost of airfare to Denver and back (must be in the continental U.S.) and provide lodging for two nights as well. As in previous years, there is no cost to enter the competition and the only requirement is that you use our wort, which we provide for free. Previous winners are Oscar’s Folly, a collaborative IPA from Jarrett Cupp, Bailey Cupp and Paul Gentz. A Bit of Heat from Geoff Groff that was brewed with paradise seeds, rose hips and habaneros. Manden Med Leen, a black IPA brewed with Belgian yeast, from Nick Rodammer. And most recently, Proud Mitten, a dry hopped IPA/Pale Ale made with Centennial, Citra and Simcoe hops from David Lyman of Kalamazoo. This event also coincides with our 29th Anniversary Celebration, Homebrew Expo, our 8th Annual Hot Dog Eating Contest, in addition to performances by Leftover Salmon, Cash’d Out (a Johnny Cash tribute band) and Monophonics and more. Competition entries (4 bottles) are due to the Bell’s General Store by Saturday, October 25. Winners will be announced on All Stouts Day Nov. 2, also at the Cafe. Want to enter? Here is everything you need to know. Sign-up times for wort pickup will begin at 11 a.m. Wort will be distributed starting at 1 p.m. Homebrewers should bring a sanitized vessel with them to transport their wort home. Buckets, carboys (please be extra careful handling glass carboys) and cornelius kegs are the most common vessels. You can leave them in your vehicle until it’s time to pick up your wort, but again, please sanitize your vessel prior to your pick-up time to help us make sure everyone gets their wort. Make sure to get there early, as supplies will be limited. Signing up early will help guarantee wort. You can send someone else to pick up your wort. We aren’t concerned with who takes it, just who turns in bottles to be judged in October. We do ask that you don’t bring friends or relatives who don’t brew, just so you can have an extra 5+ gallons of wort. We are relying on the goodwill of homebrewers to help each other out and share the wealth. Please help us make sure all who want to compete are able. You can add whatever you like to your recipe/submission. However, if your entry is chosen as the winner, we will have to be able to figure out a way to make your beer on a much larger scale. So please, take good, detailed notes of everything you do to the wort. We won’t know exactly how much we will end up with until the wort is made, but last year we were able to give 5 gallons of wort to 202 homebrewers. We hope to be in that ballpark again this year, but things happen during wort transfers that can affect that number. We recommend arriving early to sign up and make sure you get your wort. Still have questions? Just ask.